PACKARD TO MAKE VOICE RECORDS OF FRESHMAN CLASS

Frederick C. Packard, Jr. '20, Assistant Professor of Public Speaking, yesterday revealed intentions of the English department to begin soon making voice recordings of each member of the Freshman class. Made possible through the generosity of the Visiting Committee of the Board of Overseers for the English Department, the work will be carried on in Holden Chapel during the remainder of the academic year.

The opportunity is thus offered for every student to hear his own voice at the beginning of his college career, and it is probable that a similar recording will be taken for purposes of comparison during the senior year.

Each man is to speak for two and one-half minutes. During the first minute, he will read a carefully contrived phonetic test including many of the important combinations of sounds commonly used by phoneticians to reveal variations in speech and will complete the period with an impromptu talk in the freest and easiest natural manner, so that his characteristic tonal quality, intonation and inflection may be observed. Included with each record will be an index card to be filled out with information concerning the influences to which he has been subjected, both hereditary and environmental, as well as his parents' origin, his schooling, and any other influences of which he may be conscious. These cards will be put on file in Widener Library with the records where they will always be available to students in phonetics and linguistics.

Permanent Collection

If such a collection of voices continues to be made annually, its value as material for research in the science of speech will grow inestimably, according to Professor Packard. If records are taken for both Freshman and Senior years, a survey can be made to show whether the so-called "Harvard accent" is actually acquired at the college, or whether it is merely a prep school affectation. The different accents from the middle west, from Boston, from New York, can all be exactly determined and the difference noted. Also the various lads of speaking and current slang expressions will be amusing when heard several years hence. Thus the opportunity for research, both pleasant and enlightening, is boundless.

Detect Poor Speech

Not only will men with a definite defect in their speech be detected and a cure suggested, but a larger percentage of the men, while having no rest obstacle to satisfactory utterance, may be found inept in composing their thoughts orally. If this same percentage is also unsatisfactory in clarify of diction. It may be inferred that there is something significantly lacking in the present educational process